Vicfold Recyclers is Tackling Nigeria’s Plastic Waste Problem One City at a Time

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Victor Amusa and Folashade Amusa, a chemist and a micro-biologist respectively, started CleanTech company, Vicfold recyclers, to solve the challenge in 2016.


Vicfold Recyclers’ Folashade Amusa (white shirt) with women who earn money collecting plastic bottles from the streets of Ilorin.
Photo credit: Vicfold Recycler

In 2016, Vicfold started with collecting plastic waste from households and storing it for processing. The plastics are converted to usable resins that are sold as feedstock to manufacturers of household plastics, egg crates, synthetic fibre, plastic furniture, construction DPC sheets, and carpets among others.

Initially, plastic waste was gathered from women in the state using a waste-buy-back approach. As the operation has grown, the company has liaised with campuses in Kwara state to build recycle parks where plastic waste is collected and stored.

Vicfold’s plastic waste collection point in Ilorin, Kwara State.

In 2017, the company won a 15,000 euros grant from the #YouForG20 awards. According to the founders, the grant was invested in building a Waste Recycling Facility.

The facility was used to process plastic films collected from bottling companies and supermarkets within the Ilorin Metropolis. The facility can process 100,000 Kilograms of plastic waste to resin pellets monthly.

An estimated number of 2.4 Million Kilograms of Plastic Waste has been recycled since 2016 when Vicfold started, with an average of 600,000 Kilograms recycled per year.

Plan for expansion into other cities

Vicfold’s plan is to set up recycling parks in all 4 locations before the year runs out.

It currently operates a recycling park in the University of Ilorin and is in talks with two other campuses in the city to set up recycling parks and manage the plastic waste generated there. The next locations are Ondo and Osun states.

Some of the hurdles to overcome include funding to acquire more machines as well as increase the recyclable waste collection points.

While similar startups have used other people to gather plastic waste and exchange it for services like healthcare, Vicfold does not use such strategies yet.

https://technext.ng/2020/02/19/how-abuja-based-soso-care-is-helping-less-privileged-people-purchase-health-insurance-with-waste-plastic-bottles-in-abuja/

Despite what has been achieved by the startup so far, there is still a long way to go. With more plastic waste being produced daily, there is a need for a working plan in every state of the country to obtain and recycle them.

This will not only help in keeping the environment clean, but it will also reduce the quantity of greenhouse emission and its negative effects on climate change.


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